What They Don't Know
by Artistard3
Summary: Rachel and Puck met in the third grade. This is the reason they became friends, the reason why they aren't friends in high school, the way people react to their secret friendship, and more.
1. Chapter 1

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By Rachel's second day of third grade, Rachel had come to the conclusion that a lot of the eight year old kids she had met at her school were extremely rude. She had noticed Noah one Wednesday afternoon. She remembered him from Kindergarten, but they were not in the same first or second grade class.

Rachel had requested a switch from the visual arts class that her school had automatically put her in, to a music class.

Noah was in that music class as well.

Their music teacher was an unnecessarily strict old woman named Mrs. Walsh. That old woman had wispy gray hair that had the same consistency of a dried out paint brush.

Each student in Rachel's music class was assigned the task of making a song. They could sing if they wanted to. They could play a guitar. They could bang pencils as drums. They could run their finger over the lip of a glass. They could whistle. It didn't matter. It was meant to be fun.

Rachel was planning on singing a beautiful and extremely powerful rendition of 'Don't Rain on My Parade' for her song, but before she had the chance to present her song, her teacher had told Noah that he needed to present his first.

Noah showed up to class with a tape. It was a recording of noise. Static. Pure static. It was thirty four straight minutes of static. It was the kind of static you would hear if you tuned the radio to a station that was not even there.

"Why did you do this, Noah?" Rachel had heard their teacher ask Noah, sighing dramatically, after he had presented. The classroom was alive with kids talking to their friends about their own songs.

"I thought we were allowed to do whatever we wanted," Noah had said, kicking the ground.

None of her other peers had been watching the exchange, but, Rachel had.

"Yes, Noah, you were, but it had to be some kind of music."

"It is music," Noah argued. Rachel had watched as Noah had tried to walk away, but Mrs. Walsh had grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Wait, Noah! I am not done talking to you. I am your teacher, you have to listen to me. Is this really your idea of a song?"

"Yes," Noah had looked up at the woman.

"Ok. What are the words to your song, Mr. Puckerman?"

"They're whatever you want them to be," he had said, crossing his arms, glaring at the mean old lady.

Puck had seen Rachel watching the exchange, but he didn't want to get into any more trouble by not listening to Mrs. Walsh. His mom was already on his case enough as it is.

"What? How can they be whatever I want then to be? I think that this is simply a way for you to lie about not completing the assignment. You have been having behavioral issues since you started at this school. If you don't start paying attention to rules now, then, by the time you are a teenager, I can guarantee you will be nothing. Rules are rules for a reason, Mr. Puckerman," the lady lectured him. Rachel couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Excuse me?" the very verbose child couldn't help but insert herself into their conversation.

"Mrs. Walsh. While I understand the importance of following rules, don't you think it's a little harsh to be telling Noah that he will be 'nothing'? I'm sorry for being disrespectful, but this assignment was left open to interpretation. As an educator, you should be encouraging creative ways of thinking, not claiming your students will be a so called 'nothing's later in life."

"Thank you for that, Ms. Berry. Now please take your seat," their teacher had said, standing over the little brunette.

Noah had glanced at Rachel, half smiling at her with appreciation.

"Noah. I think it is fair to say that you completely disregarded the assignment that was given to you."

"Weren't you listening to what that girl said? I did that on purpose. You start to hear words. I swear. If you listen to it for long enough," Noah told the older woman.

The older woman, who appeared to be extremely confused, stared at the little boy who was sporting a tiny mohawk.

Noah's teacher hadn't been trained for that reply.

"It was supposed to be like that. That way, anyone could find what they were looking for in it," Noah looked up at her.

Rachel had thought that his reply had made sense. But apparently, their teacher didn't. Rachel heard her teacher sigh in frustration.

"Please take your seat Mr. Puckerman."

Rachel had presented her song right after Noah.

While the kids were waiting for their parents to pick them up, Rachel made her way toward Noah.

"I really liked your song, Noah. I'm Rachel. It is a pleasure to meet you," an eight year old Rachel had said to Noah.

"Uh, thank you. And thanks for sticking up for me. You sang that song about the parade and the lightning, right? You were really good!" Noah had told her. He was sweet. Rachel didn't understand why their teacher didn't like him.

"Do you mean parade and rain? If you were talking about my rendition of 'Don't Rain on My Parade', then yes, that was me," Rachel had informed Noah.

"Are you Berry? You go to my temple right?" Noah had asked her.

She nodded.

"Hmm," he had said.

"I think we should be friends," Rachel said.

"Wait, what?" Noah asked, confused at Rachel's bluntness.

"We should be friends. It could be fun," Rachel shrugged.

"Yeah, okay."

And that's how it started.

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	2. Chapter 2

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Rachel and Noah started spending time together during lunch and outside of school.

"Why do you always eat that colorful food?" He had asked her, shoving chips into his mouth.

"I'm a vegan. That means I can't eat meat or dairy," she told him.

He looked confused. "It's how I stay healthy, Noah," she informed him, laughing as he shrugged.

"You could just eat like I do and exercise it off," he suggested.

She just shook her head.

"But you're not truly living to your healthiest potential, Noah. If your mother knew what you were eating, she would be extremely upset. You're not even including all of your food groups. You have no protein, no vegetables. This is a complete travesty," she told him.

He looked confused.

"It's bad," she smiled. He nodded. "Okay, fine. To get you off my back, I'll eat some carrots or something," he said.

She nodded and smiled. "Great idea."

•

The two were able to sit next to each other at services every Friday night, since Rachel's dads and Noah's mom forced the two of them to go.

"Do you know what's going on?" He whispered to her one afternoon. She smiled and explained to him what was happening. That was usually how things went.

Because their parents were already friends, it wasn't too much of a stretch for them to become acquainted with each other's family.

Noah's mom Leah loved Rachel to death. The little girl was a big ball of sunshine who was very intelligent and a great friend to Noah. Noah was becoming better behaved at school due to her influence. They were only eight, but the girl was wise beyond her years.

Rachel was very well mannered and got along well with Noah's little sister Sarah, who was only two.

Rachel's dads Hiram and Leroy welcomed Noah into their house as well. The little boy made Rachel laugh, and he was very good at teaching Rachel things about sports, which they couldn't do much of.

For four years, they were best friends. It was an odd combination, but Rachel and Noah understood it.

••

Everything changed once Noah's father left.

Rachel was able to control him for a little while. She put a lot of effort into spending time with him and his family, helping Noah cook dinner for them since Leah, Noah's mom, was depressed. He started becoming more violent and acting out during school. She tried to defend him for the most part, but sometimes it got out of hand. He joined the football team to try to take out his aggression, due to his mom's suggestion about being in a competitive environment.

That's when he started ignoring Rachel.

At first, she let it slide. He was sad, she knew that. But then he wanted people to start calling him 'Puck', which she refused to do. He started becoming a bully. He made fun of other kids, and even though he had regret in his eyes, he made fun of her. Rachel didn't tell his mother, which she probably should've.

The summer between eighth grade and their freshman year of high school, their friendship started deteriorating.

The football guys he started hanging out with took almost all of his time away from Rachel.

Rachel decided to spend her summer practicing her singing, dancing,and acting, as well as getting ahead in her school work.

She started babysitting over the summer, including Noah's little sister Sarah, who had always been like a little sister to Rachel.

Rachel and Noah still spent a couple days before school to hang out.

It hadn't seen like much had changed. They were still friends.

"I'll always be your best friend, Noah. Okay?" She had asked. He nodded but didn't reply.

This would be the last time in a while that they could hang out alone.

She hoped that he knew that she needed him to be her best friend as well. Friendships can't be one-sided.

••


	3. Chapter 3

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The first day at McKinley high school was honestly one of Rachel's most terrible memories.

She had seen Noah across the hall, flirting with a bunch of cheerleaders, people that Noah had sworn he would never associate with, due to their obviously inferior concern about their education. Apparently, over the summer, he had tried out for the football team. This much, she knew.

What she didn't know, was that due to all of their conditioning, he was already friends with the football team, as well as the cheerleaders. She can't believe she didn't connect the dots.

As she was trying to find her locker, Noah tossed a cherry slushy into her face.

"Welcome to McKinley, loser," one of the jocks said happily, high-fiveing Noah.

She couldn't believe he had the audacity to do that to her, nonetheless another human being. The same people who had bullied her in middle school were around Noah, encouraging him.

She made eye contact with the mohawked boy who she thought was her best friend, glaring at him, rushing to the bathroom and trying to clean herself off a little bit before school started.

•

Rachel decided that she didn't need Noah. He had obviously moved on, and so could she. She decided the only way to make new friends would be to join almost every club the school had to offer.

She busied herself through schoolwork, and through telling herself that her biggest dream, Broadway, would come true.

She joined Mr. Ryerson's glee club for half the year. But that man was honestly pretty perverted and clearly into giving Hank all of the solos, so she quit.

The only time she ever made contact with Noah was when he was throwing slushies into her face or making fun of her. She was still friends with his mother, and she still babysat Noah's little sister; but that was as far as it got.

The part that hurt the most was that he was using all of her insecurities to get to her. He and the other jocks had taken time to purposefully seek her out as their target.

Rachel thinks that she is probably the biggest loser in the McKinley food chain. She had thought that the biggest loser was Jacob Ben Israel, who was also Jewish, and who she had also known since childhood. But even Jacob Ben Israel talked to the popular people, for his blog.

•

Rachel had nobody. That started to change once glee club reopened. She led the glee club from nothing to something. She made a connection with Finn, who was Noah's best friend.

Rachel had heard Noah talking to Finn about quiting glee club. Finn suggested that Noah should join too, but Noah was very adamant about staying away from that "gay Broadway nonsense", a direct quote from him.

Rachel thinks it's because he doesn't want to face her after all this time. Because he always was a bit of a coward. He was always a follower.

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	4. Chapter 4

She was upset when Quinn, Santana, and Brittany joined glee club. After all, they had been verbally assaulting her since Freshman year.

But she was the most upset she had been in a long time, watching Noah walk into the choir room, without acknowledging her, taking a seat in between Santana and Finn.

She couldn't believe he actually joined the club. He knew that glee club was her thing. It was the one thing he hadn't ruined for her.

And now he did.

She had tried to avoid him, to avoid talking to him, singing with him, or dancing with him.

They hadn't actually talked in two years.

It worked for a while. It worked better when Rachel was able to pretend like she knew nothing about Noah, or that they were never friends.

Most of the time, the club was able to choose their partners.

Except for when they weren't.

Puck had drawn her name out of a hat. He wasn't Noah anymore. At least not to her. Not with the way he had been acting. The club had dispersed around the choir room, and Puck had plopped himself down next to her.

"Hey, so I was thinking we could do like a rock number," he had started talking. She turned to him, furrowing her eyebrows. She didn't understand like he could act like nothing had changed . She knew that staying in the room with him would turn out bad.

"I-I don't think I can do this," she told him quietly, quickly picking up her backpack, planning on leaving for the day.

"Mr. Schuester, I'm feeling quite sick. I'm just going to go home early," she lied. The curly haired man nodded, believing Rachel.

"Wait," Puck hurried after her, grabbing her hand before she could leave the room.

"Rachel, stop. Let's just do this assignment," he pleaded, looking into her eyes. She saw a trace or regret put then she remembered how much he had hurt her.

"I can't. Let's just talk about this tomorrow," Rachel said.

"You're not sick. You're just trying to avoid me. I know you hate me right now, but you're going to freak yourself out. My mom said that the last night you were at my house and almost had a panic attack," he told her, which was true.

While Rachel was babysitting his little sister, Sarah had gone to bed, so Rachel had browsed the house, and she had started sobbing uncontrollably because of all of her old memories that resurfaced. Noah's mom had come back home from work as Rachel was sobbing. Noah only knew about this because his mom told him about it. He wasn't home to witness any off it.

"Do not use that against me. That's only because I was thinking about you," she whimpered, looking up at him. She knew everyone in the club was staring at them, but she didn't care.

"My mom said you need to close your eyes and take deep breaths when you're going into a panic attack," he told her again, quietly, like he used to. Like he was only talking to her and didn't want anyone else to hear.

"I'm not going into a panic attack, Noah," she cried angrily, squirming out of his grasp, since his hand in hers didn't comfort her anymore. Not like it used to.

Everyone in glee club was exchanging glances. They had no idea that Rachel and Puck even associated outside of him throwing slushies at her.

"Well that's what my mom told you when you were there last night. I'm just trying to help," he said. His mother was a nurse.

"That's not what your mom said. You don't know what she said, because it was a confidential conversation. You weren't there, and you don't know what she said!" Rachel cried, staring into his eyes. The point that she was trying to emphasize was that he wasn't there. He wasn't her friend. And it hurt.

"Rachel-"

"Get off of me, _Puck_," she spat, fighting to get out of his grip.

"I said get off!" she yelled, escaped from his grasp, hurrying out of the room.

"Rach, I'm really sorry," he told her, following outside.

"Don't apologize. That can't make up for how horrible you've been acting toward me. You are a coward. You're a liar. I'm sorry I was ever your friend, because I think that I'll regret it until the day I die," she spat, speaking to him in an angry voice.

"You don't mean that," he said, getting a lump in his throat.

She guessed that two years of not talking about what happened finally caught up to her, and they were going to have a fight about it.

"I do mean it," she told him, turning on her heel and making a run for the parking lot. As soon as she was gone, he slammed his fist against the lockers.

Everyone in the glee club had tried to pretend like nothing had happened, but they couldn't. They had never seen Rachel yell like that, especially at Puck. And they had never seen Puck apologize to anyone before.

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End file.
